Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- John Paul Tasker reports on Dr. Theresa Tam's warning that cases of the Omicron COVID variant are set to escalate rapidly. Blake Murdoch and Christopher McCabe discuss why waiting for full confirmation of Omicron's dangers before responding will result in action being taken far too late, while the Globe and Mail's editorial board argues that booster shots are needed now to contain the damage. Brooks Fallis writes that the tools are available to rein in COVID if they're paired with political will which has been sorely lacking to date. And Andre Picard writes that we still have much to learn about immunity to COVID (even as the ground continues to shift). 

- Meanwhile, Jessie Anton reports on the Moe government's decision to restrict the information available about COVID spread in schools, further limiting people's knowledge even as they're admonished to navigate a social crisis through individual choices. And Luke Savage discusses how corporatism is behind both COVID inequities, and the continued mutation and spread of a disease which continues to endanger everybody. 

- Tami Luhby juxtaposes the millions of people driven into poverty by the pandemic against the wealth amassed by the richest few, while Daniel Ziffer notes that the relative health of people who received what amounted to a limited basic income should point toward the benefits of pursuing one more broadly. And Katherine Scott writes about the need for a recovery which doesn't leave people behind, while Nav Persaud et al. offer an important set of recommendations to ensure health equity. 

- Julian Cribb writes about the rise of petrofascism as a means of insulating powerful corporations from either science-based decision-making or democratic choice. Jeffrey Barbee and Laurel Neem expose Reconnaissance Energy Africa's drilling in a protected wildlife conservancy (while buying the silence of local people). And Jeremy Appel points out the oil lobbyists standing in the way of the climate action needed in Canada. 

- David MacDonald examines how only a few types of costs are responsible for nearly all of any complaint about inflation - and how the same right-wing governments demanding austerity to "help" are doing nothing to protect their poorest residents from those. Abhi Kantamneni and Brendan Haley make the case for a national strategy to reduce energy poverty. And Ayla Peacock writes about the difficulty many people are facing navigating a housing crisis while being paid poverty wages.  

- Finally, Aaron Wherry writes about both the case to reduce the voting age to ensure young people can vote on the decisions which will shape their future, and the NDP's work to advance that cause.